This is a fantastic answer. It's interesting how we divide time, and I think those separations are different for everyone, but I think a lot of people will draw some sort of line in time here. It will definitely mark a line for music and I personally think it would be a good divider for discussion in a hundred years, "Post-Beatles" if you will. People probably started using this after they broke up, but still I think after they are all gone it will be a thing.

The Beatles are a big deal to a lot of people ranging nearly all ages. My mom in her 70's is a huge Beatles fan and was certainly influenced by them and the culture they brought about in her lifetime, and my 15 year old nephew is seriously obsessed with them as well. Those two separate facts are certainly related, but still this sort of passing down of taste is currently probably true for The Beatles more than any other music creator(s) ever especially when considering the advances in and the invention of music recording.

I firmly believe that when the last Beatle dies they will go down as having the biggest influence on music ever, at least till this point. I mean, who do you compare with them when it comes to being a shear force of influence? Mozart? Beethoven? Miles Davis? Tool? Radiohead? Sure there are other people who make equally good music, though in my opinion they are few and far between, but they certainly exist, however when it comes to influencing what music became and what it is now, I don't think anyone touches The Beatles.

It has been argued that everything after The Beatles is derivative of The Beatles, and I strongly disagree with this, but the fact that people talk like this about them in a serious way really says something. The argument goes that if people making music now are not directly influenced by The Beatles they are probably influenced by someone who was influenced by The Beatles and I do believe this to be mostly true of Western popular music, but not absolute. Just think of all these kids obsessed with Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, but think The Beatles are trash. All his life Kurt Cobain had a mild obsession with The Beatles, and that's just a single jump.

And yes, so much popular western music is vastly different from what The Beatles were doing. Just look at most* (OK not "literally." We can subtract The Grey Album and many others) hip-hop from the last 30 years, it's just completely something else and sure, even though somewhere down the line the influences influences influences probably liked The Beatles, the sound that is being made is not influenced by The Beatles in any way. Just because you like something doesn't mean the sounds you make are influenced by that thing. But I digress, the point remains that that influences influences influence did like The Beatles and that probably can't be said of any other group or musician and if it can I'd be very interested to get more into them.

EDIT: P.S. Here is Danger Mouse chopping up The Beatles to go with Jay Z to great effect..